Carry You Home
by SkyeRose
Summary: Something I've never done. A routine mission goes irrevocably wrong and someone might not make it home. Better than the summary, I promise. Contains an inconclusive major character death. Tissue warning is probably wise. SamJack.


**Carry You Home**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the recognizable stuff. Only my stuff is mine.**

**A/N: This lame idea came to me when I woke up this morning listening to this song. I just happened to come into consciousness the second it started and, in my post-sleepy mind, came up with this. Plus, some seriously suckish personal stuff is going on, so it may have been partially inspired by that. I don't particularly like songfics (even though I've written some), but this idea refuses to go away.**

**So, I hope you like it! Please review after you read, good or bad, everything is answered…just please no flames. LOL.**

**WARNING!! This is completely different than anything I have ever done. I'm telling you right now, it is a TRAGEDY with (inconclusive) character death. Meaning that you can decide how it ends in your mind. I know this may put off a lot of readers. (I don't read death fics as a rule), but it's not totally a death fic. I will probably never do this again, and I'm shocked I'm even doing it now.**

**Brief reference to "Urgo." The Maui comment.**

**ENJOY!!!**

The mission was supposed to be a routine reconnaissance; no guns, no enemies, no fighting. It was supposed to be a "break" for SG-1; they had been having a tough mission rotation lately and Hammond had decided to give them a pseudo vacation. SG-1 had protested, insisting that they didn't need any sort of slack, but their objections had fallen on deaf ears.

In a way, they didn't feel they were doing their jobs if there wasn't some sort of controversy or adversary. Sam had summed it up very nicely in the commissary earlier that day. "We've become so used to the violence and constant fighting that we don't know what to do otherwise." The corner of her mouth had curled up in a sardonic half-smile and she had shaken her head slightly.

Jack had jumped in, eyes crinkling with an almost self-deprecating smirk. "We're addicted to trouble." Daniel had raised an eyebrow, but didn't deny it. Teal'c inclined his head, though whether he was just humoring Jack or if he really agreed wasn't clear. Sam had met Jack's eyes and he felt a little jolt when she flashed him an amused smile. It was a rare, unguarded moment; her face open. Usually, before, during, and after a mission the exhaustion she felt showed plainly on her face, aging her slightly.

_Trouble is her only friend and he's back again.  
Makes her body older than it really is._

An explosion brought Jack back to reality. He went flying sideways, landing hard on his right side, and rolling to a rough stop. Coughing, he pushed himself back to his feet, breaking into a desperate run. Blonde hair flashed gold in the fading light, muddied in the dusty, burning air. "Carter!" But his voice was lost in the din of gunfire and screaming and his 2IC didn't hear him; her focus entirely on the attack vessel in front of her.

It was a stationery tower, but it was filled with tens of native warriors intent on taking her down…along with the rest of SG-1. Jack took his position behind a low wall fifteen feet away from her and fired at the oncoming army.

'_Outnumbered. We're outnumbered.'_ Jack's mind was screaming at him. He had lost sight of Daniel and Teal'c long ago, but he refused to acknowledge what that could mean. Right now, he could see only Carter.

And what he was powerless to stop.

Time seemed to slow down as Jack watched what looked like a giant staff weapon take aim and fire at his Major. Jack's scream of warning and rage was stuck in his throat as he watched Carter watch the weapon. He watched as she realized what he already knew.

There was no way out.

Sam's eyes slipped closed as the fireball rushed towards her, taking one last deep breath…

Jack's world exploded. Time and sound came rushing back as the energy from the weapon made impact, hitting Carter square in the chest. Her weapon was flung from her hands and she fell backwards, limp hands splayed as she hit the ground. Her head bounced once on the hard, rocky ground before falling to the side.

Without thinking, Jack bolted from his hiding spot and dove for his fallen Major. Her eyes were open and bright with tears, opening and closing slowly.

"Carter!" Jack yelled, falling to his knees next to her and dropping his weapon. In the back of his mind, a muffled voice whispered, _'You're not thinking, soldier. This is why they have the regs, so you don't make rash personal decisions.'_ But Jack paid the voice no heed. He had long since given up any hope of sticking to the regs.

Especially when it came to the woman in front of him.

"Sam! Sam, dammit!" He pressed his hands to her chest, right over her heart, where her blood was pooling. The warm, sticky liquid ran from underneath his fingers and fell to the ground like macabre tears.

"Sir…" The words were whispered through blood covered lips and distorted by the blood that had begun to fill her windpipe. "Sir, go…"

Jack's eyes widened as the harsh reality of the situation hit him. She was losing too much blood…

She was telling him to leave her.

Even in what she knew to be her last moments alive, she was thinking of his safety.

_As strong as you were, tender you go.  
I'm watching you breathing for the last time._

It was too much.

Jack couldn't comprehend that this was the last time he would ever see her alive. He couldn't grasp that he would never hear her laugh, or voice, or soft footsteps as she moved to sit beside him at a campfire. This couldn't be the last time she would look at him, whether it be in a rare moment of anger, or the much more frequent moments of humor and indulgence, or one of their shared special looks.

He _couldn't _lose her.

A wet rasping echoed in his ears as she drew a ragged breath. _'This isn't happening.'_ Jack steadfastly refused to believe it. Instead of focusing on why her breathing was wet and ragged, he focused on the presence of its sound.

She was still breathing, so she was still alive.

It was the absence of that sound that scared him.

_A song for your heart, but when it is quiet,  
I know what it means and I'll carry you home._

Sam reached up and laid a chilled, shaking hand on top of one of Jack's. "Sir…" she tried to convey her meaning with her eyes. "Sir, you need…to leave." She could feel her throat closing and her vision was starting to darken around the edges. "Get…Daniel and Teal'c…" She tried to squeeze his hand, but she didn't have enough strength.

She was losing.

Jack felt his eyes burn as tears mixed with sweat and dirt. Time was suddenly going too fast. He wanted to reach out and grab these moments, giving Carter more time.

Giving _them_ more time.

'_I never told her.'_ The thought made Jack want to throw up. He had never gotten up the courage to tell her everything he felt. And if he told her now, she might feel that he was only doing it because he felt that he had to, not because he wanted to.

Needed to.

They needed more time.

_If she had wings she would fly away,  
And another day God will give her some._

He opened his mouth to tell her everything that he hadn't over the past several years, but no sound came out. He knew tears were running down his cheeks, but he didn't care.

He loved her.

With every fiber of his existence, he loved her.

And she was going to die. Right here, in his arms.

The greatest cliché in tragic romances.

Which, he realized, was what they had always had.

_As strong as you were, tender you go.  
I'm watching you breathing for the last time.  
A song for your heart, but when it is quiet,  
I know what it means and I'll carry you home._

Jack leaned down and pressed his lips to her cold cheek. "Stay with me, Sam. Stay with me and I'll take you wherever you want to go."

"Maui." She coughed. "Someplace warm…with beaches."

"And bikinis." Jack smiled down at her. She was so strong. She was dying, but still retaining a sense of humor. Something that, he had the feeling, she was doing for his benefit.

She laughed quietly and fought to hold onto consciousness. She knew if she succumbed to the exhaustion that was filling every fiber of her being she would never wake up.

He ran a gentle thumb across her cheek, both oblivious to the streak of blood he left in his wake. "Sir…" Even in her last moments of life she couldn't bring his given name to her lips. "Tell…tell my dad…I'm sorry." Fresh tears sprung to her eyes and her throat ached with grief.

Jacob.

Jack was going to have to tell him. He was going to have to explain to her father, that his daughter had been killed while under his command.

_And someone's little girl was taken from the world tonight,  
Under the Stars and Stripes._

"You can tell him yourself." Jack took a deep breath. "Don't leave me, Sam. That's an order."

"I'm sorry, sir." She coughed again, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth. "I think that's…one order I can't…follow." A spasm rocked her body, jarring Jack's hands from her wound. Her blood began to flow more freely and Jack watched helplessly.

"I'm going to get you home, Sam. You will _not_ die. That's unacceptable." Praying to whatever god was listening, he gathered his second into his arms and stood up, heedless of the firefight still going on around him.

He ran faster than he'd ever run in his life, instinctively knowing that Daniel and Teal'c would follow him. The stargate loomed into sight, gilded in the dying light of sunset.

_As strong as you were, tender you go.  
I'm watching you breathing for the last time.  
A song for your heart, but when it is quiet,  
I know what it means and I'll carry you home._

With adrenaline fueled strength, he held Sam with one arm and smashed his fists into the correct pattern of symbols as fast as he could.

He was out of time and he knew it. He had to get her back. He had to get her help.

As he ran for the open wormhole, Sam's body shuddered as the effort of living crashed down on her.

He was out of time.

_I'll carry you home._

**The End**

**A/N: I hope you liked it. Please R&R!! This is my first death scene and I don't know how I feel about it. I was crying as I wrote it, so maybe a tissue warning would have been prudent. LOL.**

"**Carry You Home" by James Blunt. **


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